The Minister of the Interior of the Generalitat, Joan Ignasi Elena, has chaired, together with the mayor, Xavier Garcia Albiol, the Local Security Board of Badalona. After the meeting with the first mayor he declared that, which has become the third city in Catalonia, it has reduced the crime rates, which are “below the Catalan average”.
Elena transmitted these figures in the meeting with the police and political representatives of Badalona and declared that she maintains the commitment to increase the number of Mossos in the district. In this sense she stated that “in three years 53 new agents have arrived.” Furthermore, the councilor was pleased that the city is below average in criminal acts. If in Catalonia the figure is 77 crimes per 1,000 inhabitants, in Badalona it drops to 72 crimes.
The news was received with moderate satisfaction by the mayor, who said “he cannot be satisfied as long as there is crime in the city.” However, he explained that, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, violent robberies had decreased by 24% in Badalona in recent months, which he attributed “to the great work carried out by the Mossos and the Guàrdia Urbana.”
Albiol also thanked the head of the Interior for the willingness of the head of the Interior to reinforce the Mossos staff and recalled that the Guàrdia Urbana is also increasing “we have opened a call for 46 agents and I make a commitment to 100 more at the end of the mandate.”
In another aspect, the mayor announced that one of his priorities is the construction of a new police station in the southern part of the city “closer to where there is a greater security problem” and that he said “I hope to be able to share with the Mossos d’ Squad”.
The mayor reported that the Local Security Board also announced the different mechanisms that the municipal government is adopting to fight against illegal occupation. “Not that of a family that occupies out of necessity,” he clarified, but against the mafias “that make conflictive occupations their way of life” and that generate incivility and damage neighborhood coexistence.
As is usual, the few data that Minister Elena used contrasts with those issued by the Ministry of the Interior, which point to a 2.4% reduction in criminal activity in the first quarter of 2023. Regarding forceful robberies in establishments and other facilities, in Badalona there have been 161 cases, 41.9% less. Regarding home burglaries, the figure has decreased by 31.7% (99). However, robberies with violence and intimidation have increased by 18.7% (374) and thefts by 3.4% (927).
An issue that particularly worries those responsible for security in Badalona are the repeated episodes of sexual violence against minors, of which Elena did not want to give details “because they are being prosecuted.” However, according to the Ministry of the Interior, in the accumulated period from January to March 2023, sexual assaults with penetration have decreased from 10 to six cases, but in the global calculation of the rest of crimes against sexual freedom it has increased by 90 %, from 10 to 19 cases.
